Day151: Gori to Khashuri

It appears we’re back in the land of coffee! 

We started with a cappuccino at Coffeegizer, which was a relief after two months(at least) in tea, chai and çay drinking countries. It wasn’t great, but we can work on that.  

First stop was Fortress Gori, a castle dating back we’ll BC, but most of which is about 500 years old. A lot of it fell down in the earthquake in 1920 and it doesn’t look like anyone was was too bothered about fixing it - until now. 

Fortress Gori.  

At the base of the castle are eight statues of seated warriors. Each one seems to have been wounded in some horrific way, losing limbs, hands, chest wounds. As a war memorial it seems way more fitting than the often glorified versions elsewhere. Tbilisi didn’t agree though so the memorial was moved to Gori.  

Gori’s big claim to fame is as the birthplace of Stalin. They have a museum here dedicated to him and the main street is Josef Stalin Avenue. Not the long term treatment most mass murders get!